Freshbooks Review: How To Prepare Proposals And Invoices For Business Clients

Awesome! You decided to start your own freelance business and you just can’t wait to dig into preparing proposals and invoices to business clients. The decision has been made, and you just want to be more professional to your freelance business. Isn’t this what you were looking for?

FreshBooks is a wonderful accounting software for freelancers and small business owners. You might be wondering, how does an accounting software prepare proposals? Well, this is an extraordinary FreshBooks feature that allows you to send pitch proposals to new clients, convert those proposals into invoices, create new invoices, customize them and get paid.

This post will help you learn how to prepare proposals and invoices with Freshbooks. It hardly takes five minutes or more to add all the details. Save the template and it can be used anytime again!

Interesting, right?

But, how do you do that?

Too often you see a freelance job ad, and the companies ask you to submit a proposal. A freelance job proposal mirrors your skills and plans to achieve the business needs and requirements. You’ve to convince potential clients and impress them that you’re the perfect fit for the job. It’s always a major hurdle to document a proposal and then, send it to your clients and wait for the response.

Next,

Your proposal got accepted and the client is interested in working with you. All the other terms are decided and the client says, ‘Send me the invoice’.

If you’re new, and you have never created an invoice, what will you do?

I was exactly in the same situation. So, I figured out the online tool that my other freelance friends have used and recommended. FreshBooks is the online accounting software that just not help to create invoices but can be used to send freelance proposals, track the invoices and prepare the accounts for your business.

FRESHBOOKS REVIEW: HOW TO PREPARE PROPOSALS & INVOICES WITH FRESHBOOKS

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Freshbooks is an ultimate solution for smart business owners and freelancers who always get stuck with proposals, invoices, collaborations and account management. As said, this review will guide you to prepare proposals and invoices for business clients.

What else?

Here’s what you will learn in this FreshBooks review;

FreshBooks Features How To Prepare Proposals From FreshBooks How To Create FreshBooks Invoices FreshBooks Pricing
Freshbooks Disadvantages

Let’s quickly cover all of these headings so that you start using FreshBooks;

FRESHBOOKS FEATURES FOR FREELANCERS AND BUSINESS OWNERS

FreshBooks is a tool that keeps accounting so easy for busy freelancers and business owners. It helps to process payments and make tracking a smooth process for self-employed workers.

Create Customizable Invoices

Just choose a template, add your logo, image and enter the invoice details. Set automatic payment reminders to clients who have a hard time remembering the invoices.

Send Proposals/Pitch

Impress your clients by designing professional-grade pitches. Freshbooks has also introduced the ‘proposals’ feature through which you can also send pitches to your clients and get booked right away.

Track Expenses

No need to maintain tons of spreadsheets and receipts for business expenses. FreshBooks allows you to connect the bank account or credit card to record, and track all the expenses. Say goodbye to manual entry!

Track Time

It’s easy to track the total hours spent working for a client. Easily manage the team time tracking. Collaborate with other team members and track the hours.

The other features include preparing estimates for clients, collect accountant friendly reports, keep connected to clients and keep up an overall summary of your account activities.

DOUBLE-ENTRY ACCOUNTING

Do you wonder, what is double-entry accounting? It’s an industry-standard method that bookkeepers and accountants use to track and manage a business’s financial records.

Thus, double-entry means there will always have two entries for every accounting transaction. One is credit, and the other one is debit. Let me give you an example;

If you, as a business owner, buy a new office equipment then double-entry accounting system will track the purchase as the credit and the debit as the new asset you now own.

With this new advanced accounting feature, you will have a clear picture of financial status. Now, it’s easier to know how much you’ve got in assets, and liability. It further adds an extra layer of verification so that your account is always updated.

Double-Entry Accounting Features

Freshbook’s new double-entry accounting functions have 8 new features;

Cost of goods sold (COGS)

Other income

General Ledger

Trial Balance

Chart of accounts

Accountant Access

Bank Reconcilation

Balance sheet

A balance sheet is a full aggregate record of a business’s finance that includes all assets, equity and liability. It shows you where you’re in your business. The balance sheet also helps to watch trends over time so that you can simply compare the difference between periods in order to determine the true position of your business.

The double-entry accounting helps YOU to make better decision for the future of your business.

However, if you’re a freelancer or a solopreneur and you are happy with Freshbook’s invoicing, project management, time tracking and all other reporting functions then you can simply ignore the advanced method of double-entry.

With new double entry accounting feature business owners can ;

Generate a year end business report

Get profit & Loss and Sales tax summary with Freshbooks. Simply download it and share with your personal accountant.

Generate a separate profit & loss report that determines how much your personal business has spent vs earned.

The new function double entry accounting is absolutely perfect for businesses who want to get deeper insights on their business finance.

As a self employed pro, you can use Freshbooks for a variety of purpose.

With Freshbooks,

Create quickly polished invoices

Manage expenses

Track your time

Accept payments and get paid online

Get ready-made financial reports to find out how your business is performing.

HOW TO CREATE FREELANCE PROPOSALS WITH FRESHBOOKS?

Here’s the step by step process to create a professional pitch using Freshbooks;

Create your Free FreshBooks account. Yes, it allows an honest 30-day free trial so that you can enjoy the experience of using all the features.

HOW TO CREATE FRESHBOOKS INVOICES

The Invoice feature is typically similar to the proposal feature. It’s so easy to create an invoice and let your client know about it. If you’ve recurring clients, you can simply edit the description of the invoice and send it right away.

Furthermore, you can save all of your invoices and set payment reminders after due dates. FreshBooks makes it so easy to create invoices in minutes and send them directly to clients. On the other hand, the clients get notified and pay you instantly.

FRESHBOOK PRICING PLANS

How much does this one-in-all accounting tool cost you?

The Lite plan starts with $15/month which reduces to $13.5 if you buy yearly. It lets to work with 5 clients and create unlimited Invoices and Estimates.

The Plus plan costs $25/month which reduces to $22.5 on yearly plans. It allows working with 50 clients with all features.

The Premium plan costs $50/month which costs $45 on annual plans with almost 500 clients.

If you’re just starting out in your freelance business, the Lite plan would give you enough flexibility to maintain accounts with 5 clients. But, if you are a seasoned freelancer, the plus plan would be an ideal choice.

DISADVANTAGES OF USING FRESHBOOKS

I didn’t find any of some major problems with FreshBooks. But, I would say that the initial plan should allow more than 5 clients. I guess it’s a bit pricey for new freelancers or businesses who are struggling and don’t have enough budget. But, if you’ve had recurring clients, then it’s fair to bear $15/m.

The older dashboard wasn’t appealing at all. It was also confusing, but the new FreshBooks has got it covered.

Are you going to give it a try?

Use the 30-day free trial to enjoy the painless accounting with FreshBooks.

You can upgrade the plans at your own choice and of course depending on your business needs.

About Arfa Nazeer

This passionate girl is a blogging freak. I write persuasive and meaningful content to help new learners achieve their blogging goals. I help new & aspiring bloggers start their own blogs, and generate an income. My blog is more focused on providing solutions and latest strategies to grow online biz and blogs. To receive instant tweets and tips, follow me on Twitter . Let's Chat!

Freshbooks is an amazing tool. It just makes creating proposals and invoices incredibly easy for busy freelancers and small business owners. The best thing is that it also enables to save the invoices for the next time. So, it just takes a minute editing to prepare and send the new invoice.

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